Talks & Long-Form

Writing

Talks and long-form engineering writing on what it actually takes to build software — alone, with help that doesn't doubt itself, and the discipline of deciding what gets to exist.

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A candle, a compass, a book, and a stone on a dark wooden surface

Talk · VRTO 2026

What Survives

Building something alone, with help that doesn't doubt itself. On reflection versus echo, the discipline that moves out of the code and into the systems around it, the features worth cutting, and the one question an AI can't answer for you: does this deserve to exist?

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Adapted from a talk given at VRTO AI Day · Toronto · 2026

Retrospective · 7 documents

InnerCompass Launch Retrospective

The unfiltered engineering story behind shipping InnerCompass solo: 30+ Lambda functions, 14 CDK stacks, AI-assisted development patterns, incident archaeology, cost anatomy, and the compliance gauntlet of two app stores.

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